Actually following up on previous links to Construction Physics:
"Construction Costs Around the World: How Does the US Compare?"
Why Is It So Difficult To Automate Construction? "Construction, Efficiency, and Production Systems"
"Why did agriculture mechanize and not construction?"
"Real Estate, Property Rights, and Negotiation"
Property rights, very important for getting things done.* Without them you end up with a communist type of stasis where creative as a population may be, they just quit trying.
From Construction Physics:
When researching construction, you invariably discover that any new or innovative idea has actually been tried over and over again, often stretching back decades. One of these new-but-actually-old ideas is the idea of a mechanical bricklayer, a machine to automate the construction of masonry walls.
It’s easy to see the appeal of this idea - masonry construction seems almost perfectly suited for mechanization [0]. It’s extremely repetitive - constructing a masonry building requires setting tens or hundreds of thousands of bricks or blocks, each one (nearly) identical, each one set in the same way. It doesn’t seem like it would require physically complex movements - each brick gets a layer of mortar applied, and is simply laid in place next to the previous one. And because each brick and mortar joint is the same size, placement is almost deterministic - each brick is the same fixed distance from the previous one.
On top of this, masonry, especially block masonry, is one of the most physically punishing construction tasks, since it requires hours and hours of repetitively moving extremely heavy objects. All together masonry seems like the perfect candidate for a task to hand over to a machine, and it’s something people have been attempting for over 100 years.
Early Attempts....
....MUCH MORE
Should you be contemplating establishing a dynasty, you have come to the right place.
You are going to want a seat of power and Construction Physics has a primer on "How To Design A House To Last 1000 Years."
Additionally:
News Your Dynasty Can Use: How The Habsburgs Stayed So Powerful For So Long
Tips on playing the long game....
Anti-Piketty: Merrill Lynch's Tips on Creating a Financial Dynasty
